FORMULA 1 team Caterham will move its operational base from East Anglia to Oxfordshire this summer.

It will allow the company to bring its F1 team, which raced as Lotus in the 2010/11 season, and its niche sports car company, Caterham Cars, under one roof in Leafield.

Caterham hopes its 250 F1 employees will move with the company, but said new jobs would be created too.

Team principal Tony Fernandes – who also owns Premiership football club QPR – said: “This will be the next chapter in the development of both our motor racing teams and our road car company, and gives us the best chance to keep progressing on track and, in future, on the road with Caterham Cars.”

He said the move into the factory formerly used by F1 team Arrows, which ceased after financial difficulties in 2002, was the “obvious choice”.

The company will now start work to improve the site’s infrastructure for the F1 team and to build a new development and production facility for Caterham Cars.

Richard Langridge, West Oxfordshire District Council cabinet member for local economy and communities, said: “I am absolutely delighted that such a prestigious Formula 1 team will be relocating to West Oxfordshire. It is wonderful news for Leafield and the district.

“We hope there will be a number of highly skilled jobs that will come out of this and that will have a very positive impact.”